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Brad Montgomery-Anderson (University of Kansas) Session 94The applicative construction in Chontal MayanChontal Mayan transitive verbs use an applicative suffix -be to indicate the presence of three arguments. Previous descriptions haveanalyzed this morpheme as a reflex of the obligatory advancement of an underlying peripheral argument. I explore the use of thissuffix from a language internal perspective as well as a comparative perspective, focusing on the limitations on possessor-raising aswell as unexpected occurrences where transitive verbs do not participate in applicative constructions. These functions and limitationsare put in a broader typological framework and compared to similar uses of -be in other Mayan languages.David F. Mora-Marin (University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill) Session 96Reconstruction of Proto-Ch'olan independent pronouns: Grammaticalization & evidence for sociolinguistic variationI reconstruct the independent pronouns of Proto-Ch'olan and trace the changes that took place in the descendant Ch'olan languages,including the ancient hieroglyphic texts, as well as the evidence for their sociolinguistic contextualization. I propose two basic sets ofindependent pronouns. The first was based on the independent pronoun base *ha', inherited from Proto-Mayan and exhibiting twosynchronic variants that are differentially attested in different media in the ancient texts. The second was based on the positional root*nats' 'near' and constitutes an exclusive Proto-Ch'olan innovation that is so far unattested in ancient texts--it most likely lacked thesocial prestige that the preceding set enjoyed.Steve Moran (University of Washington) Session 34Transcription systems’ interoperability through ontologiesJesse Blackburn Morrow (University of Oregon) Session 104Linguistic restructuring during obsolescence: The Umatilla Sahaptin inverse voiceLinguistic restructuring has been suggested anecdotally for the youngest of an estimated 11 remaining native speakers of UmatillaSahaptin (Sahaptian, Penutian). I describe the Umatilla inverse voice as it is used by two elder and three younger speakers in narratingpicture stories. Results indicate a generational difference in their response to the experimentally manipulated parameters of topicality.The inverse construction of the younger generation also differs structurally from that of their elders in distinctive stress, syntagmaticposition, debuccalization, and case-marking. Inter- and intra-speaker variation is greater for the younger generation in both thefunctional and structural realms.Robert W. Murray (University of Calgary) Session 38Middle English quantity change & Luick's cradle/saddle problemImportant Middle English (ME) quantity changes such as open syllable lengthening (OSL) are extremely irregular; e.g., given OldEnglish cradol, sadol, only cradle shows OSL. In fact, only about 50% of the forms can be considered ‘regular’--expected acre,beaver vs unexpected hammer, heaven. I reject the standard treatment developed by Luick (1914-1921) on the basis of bothcomparative and internal evidence--a conclusion that has significant implications for both descriptive and theoretical work sinceLuick's interpretation forms the basis of virtually every ME handbook description and is still followed in recent theoretical treatments.Masahiko Mutsukawa (Nanzan University) Session 74Phonological clues in Japanese given names: The masculinity of Riku & the femininity of Kanon & KarinJapanese people can tell the gender of given names when they first hear them. This indicates that there are phonological genderdifferences in Japanese given names. Previous studies claim that five types of phonological gender differences determine the genderof Japanese names and that they can be ranked, based on their contribution in determining the gender. The rankings developed in theprevious studies, however, cannot explain the masculinity of Riku and the femininity of Kanon and Karin. The present study revealsthat the final syllable -ku indicates masculinity and that the sequence of light-heavy syllables shows femininity.Toshihide Nakayama (Tokyo University for Foreign Studies) Session 106Characteristics of Nuuchahnulth polysynthesisI give a profile of the morphological complexity in Nuuchahnulth (Wakashan) in hope of making a contribution to understanding thediversity of polysynthesis. At the heart of the polysynthetic word formation in Nuuchahnulth is a large group of dependentmorphemes with lexical meanings. They allow morphological expression of semantic relations including predicate-argument,150